What’s Worth Keeping…on the Sony PlayStation (PSX/PS1/PSOne)?

We know it by many names. Older gamers refer to it as the PSX while younger gamers know it as the PSOne or PS1 because in 2003 Sony actually released a system called the PSX that tanked like the 32X. Whatever you call it, the Sony PlayStation really changed the industry forever and it and the Sega Saturn are the two systems I think pound for pound have the best overall lineups out of any console ever. As with previous “What’s Worth Keeping?” columns like our Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Xbox ones, the premise of this column is to help whittle my collection down to twenty games per system. When I first started this series of columns I thought the PSX would be one of the harder systems to do, but in fact, thanks to PSN, it’s actually one of the easiest. Let’s take a look.

I currently have more than my allotted twenty games for the PSX, although digital copies via PSN that I can play on my PS3, Vita and PSP have made things so much easier. In fact I have thirty-seven “PSX Classics,” but only fourteen are ones I’ve actually picked up for myself. The other twenty-three are PSX titles I’ve gotten for free as a PlayStation Plus member. None of them are games I’d actually pay for or consider as part of my permanent twenty physical copies, but it’s nice to have SOME of them just the same. Here’s a list of the PS+ games that will go bye-bye once PlayStation+ ends or I stop renewing my membership.

Again, nothing I’d spend money on personally, but things that are nice to fiddle with as freebies. Then we have the fourteen I’ve actually purchased, which are not only playable on multiple systems, but games I also don’t have to have physical copies of. Of course, with three of the fourteen, I have them both digitally and physically.

So out of my fourteen digital PSX games we have nothing but RPGs, Castlevania Chronicles and R-TYPES. Tells you what my preferences are, eh? I should point out I got Wild Arms for free as one of the freebies for owning a Vita on its one year anniversary. I haven’t played it yet, but since I own it, it’s on the list. The nice thing is that this ends up being fourteen games I don’t have to worry about physical copies of. I love digital as it frees up so much physical space, but I also loathe digital because what happens when PSN goes down permanently? How will I access my games? Sony has already said we’ll have to repurchase digital titles for the PS4, which is as uncool as it gets, but what happens when I’m fifty and want to play Persona 2 and physical copies of the game don’t read properly anymore and PSN is gone and I can’t re-download my purchase? Is it something to actually worry about? Only time will tell.

Then there are the Import PSOne Classics I own. None of them are still available on PSN if you wanted to buy them now. You can still view and download them if you previous purchased them, but for everyone else, the purchase/download button is gone. There are some more recent import titles you can still purchase, but this is a good warning that these things can come and go from PSN quite quickly.

Hey, I like shooters. However, due to the nebulous existence the import PSX games on PSN seem to have, I’ve held off on getting any others.

So that’s eighteen digital titles I own I don’t have to worry about physically keeping and twenty-three PlayStation Plus “loaners” for a grand total of forty-one PSX games. Good thing I don’t have to whittle those down, eh? Now, however, it’s time for the main event. I currently have twenty-four physical copies, which means I have to dump four of them. The good news is that a few titles are doubled up with digital copies, several others can be replaced with digital copies and some just might not be worth keeping. Let’s see what we’ve got.

So yeah, that’s a lot of RPGs, but it’s more of a mix than my digital copies, right? I’ve gotten rid of all my PSX imports like Mizzurna Falls and Echo Night 2 simply because as much as I enjoyed them, I want to remove clutter and they’re probably not games I’ll ever play again. Plus my wife likes to watch me play games but she can’t read/speak Japanese like I can so Mizzurna Falls would just be an older, uglier Deadly Premonition she doesn’t understand and Echo Night 2 would just be a weirdly blocky haunted house game. There are times I get a hankering for them, but I know it’s for the best I got rid of them.

The question now becomes what are the four games to excise. I already have SOTN, Eternal Punishment and Grandia digitally, but I’ve held on to the physical copies for various reasons. SOTN is signed by most of the dev team and also represents the first game I was a “part of” rather than just a fan. Eternal Punishment and Grandia are simply because I love them so much. Hell, I used to still have my Saturn version of Grandia until I realized that was something I’d never play again. I mean, I didn’t really need it. Still, those are three games that if I decide to jettison the physical copies, leaves spaces for non-duplicates.

Then there are the games I could get on PSN. Arc the Lad Collection and Vanguard Bandits are two, but I’d rather have the physical copies for all the neat extras Workings Designs packed into them. I could go digital for Legend of Mana and not lose any sleep though. I could also dump Metal Slug X since I own Metal Slug Anthology for my PS2, and I really enjoy Dragon Warrior VII for the first ten hours, but the realization that there are ninety more to go sets in and I don’t want to play it any more. So that’s two that are first in line for the chopping block, but the other twenty-two games are all ones I really enjoy and have had a lot of fun with. It’s extremely hard choices all around and I have no idea what four to get rid of. A case could be made for any of them to stay. I realize a good portion of the collection are obscure titles released by smaller companies, so you, the reader, might not have played most of these releases, which makes this interactive decision on what to get rid of harder than the previous two columns. Still, let’s have at it. Which of these have you played and enjoyed? Which do you think are stinkers? What do you think should go and why? Oh, if only Agetec made their PSX releases available on PSN!

About The Author

Alexander Lucard

Alexander Lucard was the Editor-in-Chief of Diehard GameFAN and Director of Operations for the InsidePulse network. He has since retired from writing, but clearly shows up now and again. He has worked in video game journalism since 2002 and was also a paid consultant for Konami and The Pokemon Company. Alex has previously written for Tips N Tricks, Gamespot, White Wolf, TSR, Wizards of the Coast, Eden Studios, 411mania, Not a True Ending and more. His writing could also be found in the monthly periodicals Massive Online Gamer and Pokemon Collector Magazine.

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment is out for the PSP and Vita now on PSN. If you were so inclined.

Out of your 24 I’d definitely keep Valkyrie Profile, both Lunar’s and Azure Dreams. Both Lunar games have great physical extras and look great on a shelf and Valkyrie Profile, while getting a remake on teh PSP I vaguely remember you saying you still liked the PS1 title better.

At this point I’m 99.99% sure I’m dumping Metal Slug X. There’s no chance of me dumping the Lunars, VP or Azure Dreams. I love them too much. The problem is figuring out what the other three should be.

I love Brigadine, but I’ve always been a fan of “Master of Monsters” style games. I even have the Strategy guide for it on my bookshelf.
I’ll probably hold onto DWVII until they officially announce the 3DS remake stateside, but it and Metal Slug X are the two big ones on the chopping block.

Maybe wait to see if we get the 3DS port of Dragon Quest VII? I owned Brigadine at one point, but found it boring and got rid of it. Seeing what it goes for, I should have sat on it and sold it later.

While it would cut into your PSP totals, you could pick up the PSP version of Valkyrie profile (though I seem to recall you mentioning that you preferred the PS1 version).

Respect for owning Rhapsody and Kouldelka. I’m not familiar with either battler Hunter or Guardian’s Crusade, so i can’t comment on those. Don’t blame you for wanting to keep the various WD releases (though I did get rid of the Arc the Lad collection in favor of PSN versions, as I did with grandia…I like playing them on my PSP, as well as having the option to play them on a TV if I so choose).

At this point, if I do want to get rid of the only PSX import I have left, I could get rid of Hellnight (although it’s so awesome!) , get LoM digitally, dump MSX and dump DWVII once we do actually get the 3DS remake. That would pare me down to twenty. I’d probably make battle hunter my last to go over Hellnight, although hellnight then involves the boot disc and the little spring and all that other crap that , as I get older, really isn’t worth it.